


The Reclamation Hero: Ancilla

by Macrocanthosaurus



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Angry Bakugou Katsuki, Artificial Intelligence Midoriya Izumi, BAMF Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki Swears A Lot, Don't expect updates to be fast, Fatherly Avery Johnson, Female Midoriya Izuku, Forerunner Ancilla Midoriya Izumi, Forerunner Weapons, Gen, Halo Weapons, I'm Sorry, I'm making this up as I go, Midoriya Izuku Does Not Have One for All Quirk, Midoriya Izumi fought in the Forerunner-Flood War, Midoriya Izumi is made of nanites, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pelican (Halo), Post-Game: Halo 3, Quirkless Midoriya Izuku, References to Halo (Video Games), Shigaraki Tomura gets his ass handed to him, Slipspace Transportation, Warthog (Halo), need motivation, technically
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29183298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Macrocanthosaurus/pseuds/Macrocanthosaurus
Summary: Midoriya Izumi: Forerunner Ancilla, Flood's Bane, Conversion Class AI, Desire-of-Distant-Planets, Hero of the Human-Covenant War... Hero-in-Training?After escaping from Zeta Halo and the Banished, Midoriya Izumi, Sergeant Avery Johnson, and a small group of Marines and ODSTs ended up on Earth in 2315 due to a miscalculation in the Slipspace field.  It wasn't the Earth that they knew, however...
Relationships: Class 1-A & Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku/Marines (Halo), Midoriya Izuku/ODSTs, Midoriya Izuku/Sergeant Avery Johnson
Comments: 10
Kudos: 29





	The Reclamation Hero: Ancilla

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is Macrocanthosaurus, publishing my first story on AO3! I've been a huge fan of the Halo universe for years (Halo 3 was the game that got me into gaming) and a fan of BNHA for a while. I hope that I do both universes justice! I was inspired by Syber_Slash's Lone Hero of the North, and was originally going to write a story with Izumi as an Artemis Class Battlecruiser Shipgirl before I realized she was too overpowered that way, and switched her to being an unique class of Forerunner Ancilla (AI). I'm one of those people who lets the story take me where it wants me to go, and thus may take a long time to write. Hopefully you enjoy the story!

Chapter 1

It was finally over. Standing on a hillside near the ruins of the city of Voi, Africa, Izumi Midoriya, who was also known as Desire-of-Distant-Planets, Forerunner Ancilla, Flood’s Bane, and only Conversion-Class Artificial Intelligence was one of many there to honor the deceased. As Admiral Hood, leader of the UNSCDF, spoke, she thought back to all the fighting she had done over time, from when she was brought to this universe at the brink of death to the present and mourned those who had lost their lives from all species. She had seen horrors that had nearly broken her but had managed to prevail over the many losses and tragedies, mostly from the Forerunner-Flood War.

As Admiral Hood put his cap back on and saluted, Izumi was brought back from her reminiscing by Gunnery Sergeant Reynolds ordering, “Present arms!” and seven Marines standing in a line firing a 3 volley salute to the fallen. She solemnly listened to the sound echo over Mount Kilimanjaro.  
As the sun set over the plains of Africa, Admiral Hood walked over to where the Sangheili leader and Arbiter, Thel ‘Vadam, and Izumi were conversing about the future of Sanghelios. Both were deep in conversation, Izumi’s floating, metal wings bobbing up and down as she conversed. When a break in the conversation presented itself, Hood addressed the Arbiter first. “I remember how this war started. What your kind did to mine. I can’t forgive you. But,” he held out his hand, “You have my thanks; for standing by him to the end.” As Thel shook Hood’s hand, he said, “Hard to believe he’s dead.”

“Were it so easy,” Thel replied.

“Very true,” Izumi cut in. “Knowing that man’s luck, he’s probably drifting around in cryo, waiting for someone to save his ass. If it’s true, let’s hope that he doesn’t stir up more trouble.”  
Hood turned to her and looked into her helmet, which she retracted. “And you, Miss Izumi… it seems like yesterday that we found you on Alpha Halo and brought you aboard to fight. Without your help and expertise on the Flood,” he took a deep breath and continued, “Without your help, many more would have died. And for that, you have humanity’s thanks.” With that, he held out his hand, and she shook it.

“No, you have my thanks,” Izumi said, “If it weren’t for humanity getting me off Installation 04, I wouldn’t be alive.” Turning her head towards what would become known as the Voi Memorial, she sighed and said, “Let us hope that this is the crucible for lasting peace -- for the surviving Covenant species and humanity.

Admiral Hood and ‘Vadam both nodded. “Indeed,” Thel said. As people began to depart, Izumi walked up to the memorial and placed a hand on the 117 scratched into the Pelican’s wing piece.

“Chief…” she began, “I know that you’re alive, out there, waiting to be found. You and you’re insane luck got us into and out of some sticky situations.” She laughed. “I wish you were here. After all, what’s humanity without its savior?”

“I swear,” she continued, “if anything weird happens to me, I’m blaming it on you and that insane luck you have rubbing off on me.” Memories of herself waking up thanks to Chief and Guilty Spark on Installation 04, containing the Flood outbreak, fighting the Covenant and beyond. She sighed and announced, “Well, Chief, I hope to see you soon. Stay safe and lucky.”

She startled when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She whirled around, ready to skewer the offender on the end of her arm-mounted light blade when she realized who it was. “Whoa!” the person said.

“Sergeant Johnson?” Izumi asked, eyes wide. “I’m so sorry!”

“No, it was my mistake,” Johnson said, “I should have realized that you would have reacted that way. After all, the briefings that you gave Admiral Hood and ONI told us of what you’ve gone through.”

_343 Guilty Spark shot Johnson, Chief took on the ancilla while Izumi took out as much biofoam she could and started using it to seal the wound._

_“Why are you helping them, Desire-of-Distant-Planets? The Installation is tantamount to my existence!”_

_Izumi was over Sergeant Johnson’s bleeding body. “Because stopping the Flood from spreading is more important! And what you are doing is wrong!”_

_“Then you shall die with them!”_

_Then, she carried the grievously injured man out to the Warthog and kept in contact with the buried Mendicant Bias as the latter ancilla helped prevent them from being blown up by the self-destructing ring._

Izumi nodded at that. “So, shall we go, then?” Johnson asked.

She looked back at the makeshift memorial and sighed before saying, “Of course, Johnson.”

The man gently and good-naturedly said, “What have I told you before?” When Izumi gave a long-suffering sigh, Johnson raised an eyebrow.

In a perfect rendition of his voice, Izumi said, “Call me Avery, Izumi! We’ve gone through so much together that we should be on a first-name basis!”

“That’s right!” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. Lighting his trademark cigar, he reminded her, “Also, you saved me from death. If that’s not a reason to be on a first-name basis, I don’t know what is!”

“Right~.” She replied. “Anyways, why are you waiting for me? Don’t you have places to go, orders to follow?”

“About that…” Johnson began, “Admiral Hood wants us to work on a new class of carrier.” Looking around and seeing that there wasn’t anyone around, he said, “It’s an Infinity-class supercarrier and they want some help with some technology that they’ve found -- Forerunner technology -- in order to incorporate it into the ship.”

At this, Izumi nodded. “Okay. Makes sense, since I’m the last non-rampant Forerunner construct and the only one that can help them understand the technology. I’m in. Anything to help Humanity accept the Mantle of Responsibility.”

“Excellent. In that case, let’s get going.”

* * *

7 years later…

“Banished to the left of me…” *SCHICK* “Banished to the right, and here I am, stuck in the middle with you!” Izumi couldn’t help but sing as she attacked a bunch of Brutes with her light blades and the Fist of Rukt. At first, she couldn’t help but wonder why the Banished Brutes were getting so enraged by her using the Fist, but then she realized that it was an artifact of the now long dead Chieftain of the Jiralhanae, Tartarus, and therefore, very important to them. She couldn’t help but think, Well, it makes them think less than they usually do, so I guess that’s a good thing? As she killed a Gravity Hammer wielding Brute and took down a horde of Grunts using plasma grenades with an application of her wings’ beam cannons.

“DIE HUMAN! This Ring is OURS!” another Brute Chieftain screamed as he attacked her with a Gravity hammer.

“First of all, I haven’t been human for over 100,000 years, and secondly, you would think you’d learn that attacking me with just a Gravity Hammer isn’t going to work after the first hundred attempts. Isn’t the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?” Izumi asked as she casually dispatched a Jackal Skirmisher that was sneaking up on her. She went to kill the Brute, but it was cut down by a Beam Rifle.

“Hey, Angel! Don’t keep all the fun to yourself! Leave some for us!” Johnson yelled. The man was in his 80s now, but still looked like he was in his early 50s. Izumi nodded at him as he sniped another Brute, to the protest of a marine.

“Hey! That was my kill!”

“Keep your gun trained on the target, then!” Johnson yelled at him, “Maybe then you won’t get your kill stolen!”

As the Battle of Zeta Halo continued into the night, countless scores of Banished Infantry died, but the losses were heavy on the Human side too. The skies were lit up by warships firing at each other and explosions, while ringside, there were muzzle flashes and plasma, screams of the dying, and the smell of gunpowder and burning soil and flesh. Eventually, the enemy retreated, causing her to pursue them. Then, suddenly, after hours of hit-and-run ambushes on the retreating lines, the night sky was lit up like a fireworks festival. As her helmet nearly completely polarized, she looked up.

“What the FUCK just happened?” she asked via comms after the sky calmed down.

A panicked voice replied, “That was the whole damned fleet! Fuck! What did they use, a new superweapon?”

“Desire-of-Distant-Planets to _Infinity_ , do you copy?” Izumi radioed, “What the hell just happened?”  
]

“This is _Infinity_ to Desire-of-Distant-Planets. The enemy just hit us with a barrage of planet-killing nukes and plasma. We have taken heavy damage and the fleet is destroyed. We’re -- They’re using one on the _RING_??? _Infinity_ to ground forces, BRACE YOURSELVES!”

Izumi threw herself to the ground as the nuke above her suddenly lit up like the sun itself had come to the ring. Then came the earthquake as the nuke detonated on the ground and broke apart a section of the ring. Dozens of screams clogged up the comms as a wave of supersonic air rushed over her and the camp, blasting trees and soil into the air.

As the devastating after-effects ended, Izumi stood up. “Desire to base. Is there anyone still alive?” When she didn’t get an answer, she repeated the message.

Eventually, someone answered. “This is base to Desire. We have been devastated. Fall back and report to us. The _Infinity_ just sent us a message that they’re bugging out. We’re alone now.”

“Roger that. Don’t be surprised when I come in.” A bluish-white cloud spiraled into existence in front of her, and she entered it. Seconds later, she emerged from another portal before allowing it to collapse with a small explosion.

“Good Gods…” she said as she looked around the base. Vehicles were upended and scattered all over the place, with only a few Broadswords, Longswords, Sabres, Pelicans and a Warthog surviving. The prefabricated base had numerous trees impaled into it, like javelins, and boulders the size of houses had crushed parts of the Titanium-A building and destroyed even more vehicles.

“Looks like a mess, doesn’t she?” a voice said, causing Izumi to jump and pull out a Boltshot from her pocket dimension and fire it at the speaker. “Whoa, calm down!” the ODST said, “I’m friendly!”

Putting down the Forerunner pistol, Izumi exclaimed, “Don’t scare me like that!”

“Duly noted, Desire,” They said.

The two surveyed the exterior damage for a bit before the ODST brought her to a tent outside of the wrecked base. Inside of the tent, set up between 4 pelicans, was a squad of ODSTs, 6 Marines, an Engineer, and no command members. “Is this everyone?” she asked.

“Certainly seems like it,” A familiar voice said. Sergeant Johnson entered the tent, making Izumi sigh in relief. At least he survived, she thought. He continued, “We were caught with our pants down.”

A Marine asked, “What are we gonna do? We have no space side support, pretty much all of our vehicles are destroyed, the command was impaled by a giant tree and crushed by a boulder, and we have no vehicles with slipspace drives. Face it, we’re screwed, especially without a way to get out of here!”

“Get it together! We do have a slipspace drive!” Johnson said. Everyone except Izumi looked at him funnily until she stepped forwards.

“That’s right. Ever wonder how I get to places so fast? Well, I have a Forerunner drive implanted with my processing core. If we’re careful, it should be able to take us to Earth, no problem. Honestly, though, my device was a prototype for personal Slipspace drives, and it has had a few malfunctions over the centuries.”

A bunch of wary looks were sent her way. “What type of malfunctions?” one of the ODSTs asked.

“Well, there was one time that I was sent to a planet where I was attacked by a group of armored black werewolves and giant birds… another time I was sent to a supermassive black hole… Or the time I was on an Earth that was being attacked by robot squid spaceships… or the planet that was covered by tentacled monstrosities… or the gas giant that--”

“Okay, we get it. When your Slipspace drive malfunctions, it does so horribly.” a Marine said.

“Basically. Although, the errors haven’t happened in a hundred years or so, so we should be fine, as long as I’m not hit by anything when we’re entering. Otherwise…”

“We’re fucked.” a marine said.

“Pretty much!” She replied. It was silent for a while as they mulled that over.

“Whelp, I’d rather not get stuck on a tentacle planet. I vote to stay h-” the ODST was interrupted by the sound of repulsor engines as a squadron of Phantoms flew overhead, causing the humans to duck. “Shit, the Banished! Fuck what I said, let’s get outta here!”

Johnson grabbed the ODST. “You aren’t pussying out on us, are you?”

“No,” the ODST replied.

“Good. Now listen up, here’s what we’re gonna do, “Johnson began, “We’re going to gather as many supplies as we can -- guns, ammunition, armor, medicine, food, spare parts -- and bring it aboard this Pelican here.” He tapped Izumi’s personal VTOL, _Earthrise_ , on the side. “After we secure all of the supplies to the ground, we’re going to grab Old Bess,” which was Johnston’s Warthog, “and hook her up. Then, we’re getting the hell off this God-damned ring! Izumi will bring us to Earth, where we’ll ask command what the hell went wrong!”

“OORAH!” was the response.

“Glad we’re on the same page,” Johnson said, satisfied.

Izumi spoke up. “We should leave by morning -- the bastards know where we are and are likely to launch an attack after scouting us tonight. Stick together and yell if you see something.” With that, the group split up to get the necessary supplies. Izumi began dismantling the Pelicans and other surviving aerospace vehicles to get their parts, especially their fuel cells. The operation went smoothly, allowing them to gather the necessary items and store them in the dropship. The _Earthrise_ was a heavily modified Pelican, with a dedicated storage area alongside a troop transport. This allowed them to store things like Old Bess’s ammunition, rockets and bombs, armor and other items. On the forewings were rocket pods and cargo pods, allowing for additional storage. They were in the middle of loading the dropship when gunfire went off along the perimeter. Over the comms came the cry of “Banished scouts!” prompting Izumi to drop what she was doing and take care of the Brutes.

She had just finished off the scouts and was ordering the pair of Marines away when she heard the characteristic double KR-SHHHH’s of energy swords being activated. Turning around, she saw something that nearly made her panic. A Sangheili in crimson armor was standing there, holding two Bloodblades. “Silent Shadow,” she whispered, horrified. “When did they join the Banished?”

The Elite chuckled. “We were promised blood and sport and spoils from Atriox himself. I personally was promised your head. After all, I’ve been hunting you for a while now, first from the Liar Truth, but now from Atriox.” The Sangheili readied himself. “And I fully intend to collect on my promise. Now, prepare yourself, Desire, for I, Thir ‘Votanai, shall be the last thing you see!”  
  
Activating her Lightblades and allowing her helmet to form on her face, Izumi commented, “We’ll see, ‘Votanai, we’ll see.” With that, the two leaped into battle.

Meanwhile, the two Marines that she had saved from the ambush were back at the command tent. “Johnson, sir!” one of the two, a female named Emily Rouges, exclaimed, “Izumi’s under attack!”

An ODST commented blasély, “She’ll be fine. How many Brutes has she taken down now?”

James Lawton, the other Marine, cut the response off. “It’s not a Brute, it’s an Elite!”

Sergeant Johnson immediately stood up. “Is it dressed in crimson armor with a glowing blue visor and two Bloodblades?”

“Yes!” the two Marines responded. “Wait, sir, how did you know?”

Avery didn’t reply right away. “Shit, shit, shit! That’s a Silent Shadow member! Wait, what did he say his name was?”

“Thir something-or-another,” Emily replied.

“Thir ‘Votanai?” Johnson asked, his face serious.

“That’s it!”

Johnson spat out his cigar. “Fuck! That Sangheili’s had a hate boner for Izumi for years now! She’s been able to hold him off before, but never kill him! But he’s nearly killed her before!”

“What are we supposed to do?” the ODST from before asked.

“Finish everything up here, then fire up the Pelican. I’m headed over to support her at range.” Picking up an SRS99 and a bunch of ammunition, Johnson said, “When you’re done, radio me. I’ll let you know what to do from there.” With that, he ducked out of the tent and into the night.

* * *

Back with Izumi, the fight had left both trees and the ground scarred by plasma and hard light. Both had gotten hits in, but despite her having more experience than Thir, Izumi was getting hit more. The Sangheili commander had brought her shields down and was now aiming every attack at vital spots.

Multiple beams scoured the ground as Thir dodged before getting into Izumi’s face. She brought her Lightblades up in time for one of Thir’s Bloodblades to crash into the light constructs hard. The saurian alien had the gall to laugh as she struggled with the weight. “Don’t you feel it? The feeling of impending death? Makes you feel alive!” Bringing up her wings, she fired off her Beam Cannons, only for the Sangheili captain to block them with his Bloodblade. Her face paled as the Silent Shadow member laughed.

“You see,” he began as she disengaged and jumped back, aided by her wings and thrusters, “I’ve modified my Bloodblades, with help from the Huragok. Now, my blades can absorb and store any energy that is taken in, and release it,” ‘Votanai pointed the Energy Sword’s prongs at her, “LIKE THIS!”

The blades extended an extra 20 feet in milliseconds, nailing Izumi in the chest. The prongs then swept downwards through her torso and stomach before retracting. Thrusters and wings failing, she flopped onto the ground and screamed in pain -- the seared nanites along her wound took hours to be replaced last time, making this a grievous injury.

Izumi’s combat mask retracted as she spasmed from the pain. Meanwhile, while a good portion of her processor was dedicated towards the pain signals it was receiving, as well as starting up the production of new nanites, another portion of her was going over the fight. So that’s why he was using his Energy Sword to block most of my shots rather than dodge, that part thought. Another part noted that ‘Votanai was taking his time in stalking towards her downed body.

Thir deactivated one of his Bloodblades and grabbed Izumi by her wrists to lift her up, dangling her in front of him. She struggled weakly as he took the other ruby sword and stabbed it through her vocal processor, one of the few body parts that was not made entirely of Forerunner nanites. Her scream of pain suddenly cut off as the part melted into slag.  
Izumi could hear the smile in Thir’s voice as he said, “You must be wondering how I know what to attack and what works against you, right?” When she didn’t respond, he continued, “Well, let’s just say I found a Forerunner data packet on a Halo ring and had the Huragok activate and translate it. Suffice to say, it was about you and how to best combat you if you were infected by the Parasite’s Logic Plague. After that, it was easy to take you on.” Raising his blade, he said, “Well, that’s enough. Where is the processor? Ah, yes, It’s in the head, guarded by a skull made up of the same stuff that makes up Forerunner structures. Now, how to extract it?”

The Silent Shadow captain was about to basically say fuck it, cut her head off and be done with it when a 14.5×114mm APSFDS sniper round impacted his head, stunning the Elite. He dropped Izumi, who fell onto the ground with a gasp of pain. “Where did that COME FROM!” he roared, then staggered as another one slammed into his skull, ringing his brain like a bell. He got up snarled, and stalked off to find the sniper, angrily grumbling about, “Gods damned cowardly, honorless hoo-mans.”  
When he left the clearing, Johnson’s voice said over her comm, “Izumi! Myself and some Marines who can’t listen to orders,” he grumbled the last part, “are luring Thir away. Get up and get out of there!” When he didn’t get a response, he said, “Izumi, you need to get out of there NOW! That’s an order!”  
Izumi struggled to move her arms in response but was barely able to. She wasn’t able to do anything to escape. Also, she knew that she would die if she stayed where she was. Unfortunately, the pain paralyzed her. DMR and sniper shots rang out as she lay on the ground, not noticing that they were getting closer and closer until someone was over her. “I’m here, Izumi,” A female Marine said, “Let’s get you outta here.”

She could only look at the Marine blearily as she was carefully picked up. The staccato of gunshots echoed as the two of them made their way back towards Sgt. Johnson. They moved cautiously, attempting to keep Thir’s attention off them so that Izumi could get to base safely and heal up. Eventually, they came to the spot where Johnson was crouched, SRS99 poised to take the Elite’s head off.  
However, ‘Votanai was playing it smart. He had shut his Bloodblades off and turned on his active camouflage so that he could sneak up to his assailants to kill them. Johnson gave the order to fall back to base just as ‘Votanai leapt out of the brush, roaring in rage. Sergeant Johnson jumped out of the way of the activating blades of ruby plasma, pulling out his pistol as he did so. Once he was out of harm’s way, he began firing at his attacker before disappearing into the forest. The furious alien snarled, mandibles curled, and sprinted off.

It was then that they got a call from the base that the supplies were loaded up and the Pelican was ready. “C’mon, Izumi,” the Marine said as she half dragged, half carried the humanoid ancilla, “we’re almost there; just a little bit longer.” By this time, her wounds had started to heal, and the pain had subsided a small amount, so Izumi was able to get her feet under her and help with the walking.

Eventually, after another grueling 10 minutes, they arrived at the Pelican. “Isn’t she a sight for sore eyes,” the Marine commented.

“Where’s everyone else?” Lawton, the designated pilot, asked. Just then, the squad of ODSTs broke from the forest, firing their weapons wildly.

“Let’s go! There are Brutes on their way!” one of the ODST’s yelled.

“What about Johnson?”

“Johnson’s on his way! He said to get this bird in the air and pick him up!” another ODST replied. “Start the damn Pelican!”

“What about the pre-flight checks?” Lawton asked.

“Screw the checks! We’ve got a fuck-ton of Banished troops coming our way right now! We need to move!”

“Well, then hold onto your butts!” The Pelican’s engines started, and the aerospace dropship took to the skies.

“This is Sergeant Johnson to _Earthrise_ ; come and pick me up! I’ve gotten away from the red bastard and I’m headed your way!” The Pelican swiveled to where Johnson had thrown a flare and flew over to where he was. When they got there, Johnson hopped onto the landed dropship and they started to move.

Of course, that’s when the Elite burst out of the woods and jumped into the air while screaming his anger at his prey getting away. The M370 70mm chaingun whirred to life, spraying the Elite with bullets. They all missed, and Thir fell to the ground before roaring in rage. They could hear his displeasure even as they ascended. Once they were out of range, everyone slumped in relief. “That was close,” Lawton observed as they went up, “Too close.”

The ODSTs removed their helmets, and the Huragok Engineer whistled. “What would’ve happened if that Elite had landed on the Pelican?” The blonde female ODST asked.

“He would have attempted to cut through the Pelican’s glass and kill everyone on board,” Johnson responded to her. “Just be glad it didn’t happen, Jess. I’ve seen Mr. Rage Lizard do it before; just because the _Earthrise_ ’s cockpit is reinforced against plasma doesn’t mean that he won’t try it again.”

As the Pelican left Zeta Halo’s atmosphere, there was bustling on the Pelican as they waited for Izumi to heal enough to make the trip back to Earth. That point occurred approximately 2 hours after they left the Installation, during which they hid behind a destroyed UNSC frigate. There was tons of debris from the fight everywhere; both Banished and UNSC spaceships were left behind from the fierce fighting. It was when they looked over the superstructure that they saw the devastation left behind from the nuke that the Banished unleashed to deny the Humans the ring. A huge chunk of the Forerunner weapon was just… gone, with smaller parts of the ring ripped off and floating in space. “Oh my god,” A Marine said, “It’s like a small NOVA Bomb went off…”

Johnson surveyed the damage while petting the Huragok. “Damn. Didn’t know that those Brutes had it in them to destroy a ring -- or the weaponry to do it.”

“Well, turns out that they did,” an ODST said, “And they used it to great effect.” He sat down and put his head in his hands. “So many people… gone…”  
Johnson put his hand on his shoulder and said, “I know. As much as this is a tragedy, we need to keep it together until we get back to UEG space and warn the others about the threat.”

“You’re right… we just need to get back to Earth,” the ODST said.

James Lawton asked Sergeant Johnson, “Is Izumi going to be okay? She’s our ride out of here…”

“She’s going to be fine…” was Johnson’s response.

A hand found its way to Johnson’s arm; Izumi was finally awake. Immediately, she was bombarded by questions regarding the state of her health, to which she waved her hand back and forth in a ‘so-so’ gesture. “So you think you can get us outta here?” Emily asked.

Izumi nodded. She walked over to a panel in the wall and opened it, with a cable coming out of her arm. She attached it to the plug in the wall, then sat down. “What’s she doing?” Erin Xing asked Johnson, puzzled by her actions.

“She’s transferring herself to the Earthrise’s systems. That way, she can help pilot and sync the Pelican’s thrusters to her Slipspace engine. She’ll be synced right about… now.” At that, a holographic avatar appeared in a holotank in the cockpit.

“Are you all ready to get back to Earth and get away from this hellhole?” Izumi asked the people and one Huragok in the ship.

“Hell yeah!” was the enthusiastic response from the crew.

“Then power up the engines and let’s go!” The whine of dual fusion drives began vibrating the ship as they took off from the piece of debris they were behind. As they were flying away from the ring, Izumi began doing the quadrillions of calculations per second necessary to open the portal to slipstream space and keep the space open as they traveled through. As she did this, she activated the drive in her core, causing a blueish-white rift to open in front of them.

As they flew towards the rift, a blip appeared on her sensors. Scans of the surroundings revealed a small, high-speed spacecraft headed straight towards her Pelican. “Lawton,” she urgently announced, “We have what appears to be a Space Banshee headed our way.”

“We’ll lose it during our Slipspace jump, right?” he asked.

Izumi’s holographic avatar tilted her head. “We should be able to. It is, however, boosting at speeds in excess of Mach 2 to get to us, so…”

James nodded. “Right. Let’s get into slipspace before it reaches us.” The Earthrise was about to enter the portal when suddenly, hot boluses of plasma slammed into the vehicle’s shields, knocking the vehicle around and startling Izumi. While startled, she made a mistake in one of her quantum calculations, not enough to write them out of existence, but enough to cause… unwanted effects.

As the Space Banshee sped towards them, Johnson yelled at the pilot, “Go, go go! Get us outta here!” In response, he turned the Pelican back around and headed into the Slipspace portal. They made it, and the portal closed behind them. They thought they were headed to their Earth, but little did they know that the misdone calculation would bring them somewhere totally unexpected…

And that a certain Elite had made it through the portal too...


End file.
